EU net­work

Pro­tec­ting against coun­ter­feit medi­ci­nes is an inter­na­tio­nal task. That is why the count­ries of the EU and the EEA work tog­e­ther within the frame­work of the Euro­pean Anti-Coun­ter­feit­ing Sys­tem EMVS. This con­sists of the indi­vi­du­al natio­nal sys­tems (e.g. the secur­Ph­arm sys­tem in Ger­ma­ny) and a cen­tral data rou­ter (the EU hub) through which the natio­nal sys­tems exch­an­ge data. The EU hub also ser­ves as an access point for phar­maceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies and is ope­ra­ted by the Euro­pean Medi­ci­nes Veri­fi­ca­ti­on Orga­niza­ti­on (EMVO).

For exam­p­le, the EU hub makes it pos­si­ble for every pack affec­ted by the Fal­si­fied Medi­ci­nes Direc­ti­ve to be che­cked in every phar­ma­cy in the EU.

To do this, the phar­ma­cy sim­ply scans the Data Matrix code on the pack and sends a request to its natio­nal sys­tem (e.g. the secur­Ph­arm sys­tem). If the natio­nal sys­tem does not know the pro­duct code and batch num­ber, it for­wards the request to the EU hub. The hub checks whe­ther the batch in ques­ti­on is stored in ano­ther mar­ket and for­wards the request accor­din­gly. The natio­nal sys­tem of the other mar­ket car­ri­es out the check and sends the result back to the EU hub, which in turn for­wards it to the reques­t­ing natio­nal sys­tem and thus to the phar­ma­cy.